What are the different ways in which archaeologists and anthropologists date the past?

Archaeology is a branch of science that explores the lives of the people and their societies in the past by digging remains, dating, organizing and restoring them from particular eras or geographical regions. In dating the recovered artifacts, human fossils and other historical objects, archaeologists uses two types of dating techniques: absolute and relative dating. Absolute dating relies on the physical properties of the sample in order to calculate the age of it. These include the very famous Radiocarbon dating, dendrochronology, potassium-argon dating, Thermoluminescence dating, Numismatics and optical dating. Relative dating on the other hand is a method of determining not exactly the age of the artefact rather the order in which certain events occurred. Examples of relative dating are the fluorine dating and Seriation.

Anthropology is also called the science of humanity. It also studies the past civilizations but more concentrated on the present or modern societies. The goal of anthropology is more focused on understanding the connections of the artifacts or remains with the behaviors of the civilization. These behaviors include leadership and government formation, society development and adaptation development. Anthropologists also date their remains using the absolute and relative dating.